IN THE ego-driven world of Westminster there are few men who command universal respect, but Swansea East MP Donald Anderson is one.

Reflecting his career path before entering Parliament, Mr Anderson has combined the intellectual rigour of a barrister and the manners of a diplomat to ensure that when he talks everyone listens and no one bears grudges.

Unlike some of his contemporaries, Mr Anderson has not developed into one of the backbench awkward squad, a permanent thorn in the Blairite side, and his criticisms of the Government have been all the more effective for being selective.

On the eve of war it was perhaps the support of two Welsh MPs which did more to rally backbench support for the Prime Minister's standpoint than Mr Blair's own passionate pleas: Cynon Valley MP Ann Clwyd's emotive accounts of human-rights abuses, combined with Mr Anderson's thoughtful assessment of Saddam Hussein's cat- and-mouse games with the United Nations weapons inspectors, did much to win over many wavering hearts and minds.

While the Prime Minister has subsequently denied a public inquiry into allegations he misled the public in the run-up to war, Westminster knows that the current inquiry by the Foreign Affairs Committee under Mr Anderson's chairmanship will, at the very least, be fair.

The 64-year-old's reputation as an independent thinker was substantially enhanced in 2001 when the Government tried to oust Mr Anderson as chairman of the Foreign Affairs Committee, along with the plain-speaking chairwoman of the Transport Select Committee, Gwyneth Dunwoody.

In a rare successful rebellion by backbenchers, Labour MPs resisted moves by party whips to oust the troublesome two.

Had Labour's internal struggles not kept the party out of power throughout the 1980s, the public at large would have come to know earlier what Mr Anderson's own constituents and all parliamentarians know: He is Old School in the best sense of the word.

Born in Swansea in 1939, Mr Anderson was educated at Swansea Grammar School and University College, Swansea, gaining a first-class degree in modern history and politics.

He went to the bar and later became a diplomat in Budapest, winning the curious title of diplomat ping pong champion.

Entering politics, he served as the MP for Monmouth for four years - before losing the seat and coming home, and then serving Swansea East from 1974.

In the 1970s, he was an ardent campaigner for Britain's entry to the EEC but was one of the "gang of six" Labour MPs opposed to devolution for Wales.

Typically enough, when the second referendum was secured, Mr Anderson was gracious in welcoming the development, but shrewd enough to warn that any further significant hand-over of power should only come with the support of another public poll.

In 1983 he was promoted to the front bench, becoming Labour's Deputy Foreign Affairs spokesman for the remainder of the decade.

He was a fierce campaigner against the apartheid system in South Africa, and once branded Britain the "best collaborator of the apartheid regime in Europe".

But his progressive views sit alongside Methodist reservations, particularly in relation to alcohol, and Mr Anderson led the campaign to leave Wales out of the Licensing Bill in 1987, which opened the door to Sunday trading.

In the late 1980s, Mr Anderson led the first of three successful campaigns to preserve jobs and the status of the DVLA in Swansea, branding proposals to privatise the organisation as "ultimate madness".

He served on John Smith's shadow front bench as Deputy Spokesman on Defence, then as Shadow Solicitor General under Tony Blair.

He was left off the front bench in 1995 and, when Labour came to power in 1997, Mr Anderson became chairman of the Foreign Affairs Select Committee, which by convention he has to give up after two terms.

Announcing his intention to retire at the next General Election, Mr Anderson joked he wanted to "get to know" his wife Dorothy, to whom he has been married for 40 years, and said he would quit Parliament "before people start to say it is about time to go".

After the announcement, plaudits swiftly followed for this genial gent whose expertise in foreign affairs has never been fully utilised but has always been thoroughly respected.